Reid splits the Home Office and off-loads jails crisis

Plans to split the Home Office in two were last night condemned by the country's most senior judge and chief constables.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, warned that John Reid's shake-up could plunge the justice system into "recurrent crisis".

His remarks opened a damaging rift with the Government on a day when the prison population hit yet another record high.

Responsibility for crisis-hit prisons and probation, as well as sentencing and the criminal justice policy, will pass to a new Ministry of Justice on May 9, created from the current Department for Constitutional Affairs.

In unusually blunt language, Lord Phillips said "there is a risk the new Ministry will be faced with a situation of recurrent crisis, or judges will be placed under pressure to impose sentences that they do not believe are appropriate".

Meanwhile, the Home Secretary is handed a beefed-up role coordinating counter-terrorism strategy, while keeping responsibility for immigration, policing, yobbish behaviour and ID cards.

Mr Reid said the split would allow him to focus on the war on terror, without the distraction of other responsibilities.

But the criticism by Lord Phillips was echoed by Ken Jones, who speaks on behalf of chief constables.

He is concerned the split will make it harder to monitor freed criminals – because probation and police will no longer be part of the same department.

"Core activities such as intelligence-gathering and supervising dangerous offenders rely on all criminal justice agencies working in partnership, and separating them into two ministries means we will have to work much harder to ensure that the strong partnerships that have been built up continue to develop," said Mr Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers.

John Denham, Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee and a former Home Office minister, said experience from ministries of justice around the world showed that they often became departments "run by lawyers, who see the world through lawyers' eyes and don't want to upset lawyers'.

Opposition MPs questioned the timing of the announcement, which saw Mr Reid escaping responsibility for prisons on a day they plunged into even deeper crisis.

There are now 80,199 inmates, including 351 in police cells – an all-time high.

Space in the police cells has nearly run out, forcing the Home Office to implement plans to use cells in courthouses.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said the split would undermine security. He added: "The logic, presumably, is that this job is too difficult for the Home Secretary to do.

"It has been well run in the past by home secretaries of all parties, when it was much bigger and still had responsibility for licensing, gambling, broadcasting, fire, civil defence, human rights, equal opportunities and charities.

"Breaking it up will solve none of the Home Office's problems."

Charles Clarke, Mr Reid's predecessor as Home Secretary, told his former Cabinet colleague the split was "irresponsible", adding: "The coherence and co-ordination of the criminal justice system will be damaged."

Mr Reid retorted: "I disagree on every point. I respect your judgments, but I don't think they have always been right in the past."

He insisted the slimmed-down Home Office, which will absorb counter-terrorism strategy from the Cabinet Office, would be best placed to focus "towards the challenges of today's world, and focus on the priorities of today's people".

There are between 15 and 20 Whitehall committees with responsibility for the war on terror, along with at least three Government departments.

The new Office for Security and Counter Terrorism , to be run by Mr Reid and staffed by 350 civil servants, will attempt to address this – although Mr Reid did not wrestle full control of MI6 and GCHQ from the Foreign Office.

In a written statement to MPs, Tony Blair said Britain's counterterrorism capabilities were "the best in the world" but still needed to be improved.

The Prime Minister is understood to view the splitting of the Home Office as part of his post-Downing Street legacy, with the timing of May 9 for the change possibly coinciding with a formal announcement he is stepping down.